Ss33> 



f 






S 533 

M74 

Copy 1 



SPEECH 



JUSTIN S. MORRILL 



: VERMONT, 



ON TUB 



GRANTING LANDS POR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES ; 



EREO 



5 £ OP REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 



WASHINGTON: 
;~D AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOfiE OFFICE. 

1353. 



42 3<1/M 






AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



Mr. CLINGMAN. I now hope my motion 
will prevail, as I see the gentleman who is entitled 
lo the floor [Mr. Morrill] is in his seat. 

Mr. HOUSTON. Was not the House, when 
last in consideration of the business of the morn- 
ing hour, engaged in the call of committees for 
reports? 

The SPEAKER. It was; but there is a pend- 
ing report. 

Mr. HOUSTON. Does the gentleman propose 
to resume the call, commencing where the call 
was last suspended ? 

Mr. CLINGMAN. Certainly. 

The motion was agreed to. 

The SPEAKER. The pending bill is a bill do- 
nating public lands to the several States and Ter- 
ritories which may provide colleges for the benefit 
of agriculture and the mechanic arts. The gen- 
tleman from Michigan [Mr. Walbridge] moved 
to postpone its consideration until Wednesday, 
the 21st instant; and that the bill, and the report 
of the majority and views of the minority of the 
committee, be printed. The gentleman from Maine 
[Mr. Washburn] moved to reconsider the bill. 
The gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Molr-ll] is 
entitled to the floor. 

Mr. MORRILL. There has been no measure 
for years which has received so much attention 
in the various parts of the country as the one now 
underconsideration,sofarasthefactcan be proved 
by petitions which have been received here from 
the various States, North and South, from State 
societies, from county societies, and from individ- 
uals. They have come in so as to cover almost 
every day from the commencement of the session. 



Before I proceed further, I desire to ask the 
gentleman from Michigan to withdraw his mo- 
tion to postpone, in order that I may introduce 
an amendment,- which I propose to offer, merely 
changing the bill so far as to strike out all in re- 
lation to the Territories. 

Mr. WALBRIDGE. I will withdraw it for 
that purpose. 

The SPEAKER. There is a pending motion 
to recommit, which must also be withdrawn, be- 
fore an amendment will be in order. 

Mr. MORRILL. I ask the gentleman from 
Maine to withdraw the motion to recommit. 

Mr. WASHBURN, of Maine. I withdraw the 
motion. 

Mr. MORRILL. I now offer the amendment 
which I send to the Chair, to come in after the 
enacting clause, in the nature of a substitute for 
the whole bill. Mr. Speaker, I know very well 
that when there is a lack of arguments to be 
brought against the merits of a measure, the Con- 
stitution is fled to as an inexhaustible arsenal of 
supply. From thence all sorts of missiles may 
be hurled, and though they " bear wide" of the 
mark, they do not " kick the owner over." I have 
also noticed that lions accustomed to roar around 
the Constitution are quite disposed to slumber 
whenever it is desirable for certain gentlemen, who 
carry extra baggage, to leap over the impediment. 
But, while I do not propose to consider the con- 
stitutional argument at any great length, 1 shall 
not wholly blink it out of sight; and all the favor 
asked is, that the Constitution may not be strained 
and perverted to defeat a measure no less of pub- 
lic good than of public justice — just politically, 



<Z 



to ail the ■ I 
manhood of our country. 

' W ur power ami e: ; ms to 

ct and promote commerce thn 
s, coast surveys, improvement of harbors, 
and through our Navy and Naval Academy. Our 
tary "crown-jewels" are manufactured at 
West Point on Government account. We make 
use grants of lands to railroads to open new 
Is of internal trade. We secure to literary 
prol ction of copy-right. We encour- 
bhe growth and discipline of hardy seamen by 
■ •king out their scanty rewards through govern- 
ed bounties. We secure to ingenious me- 
chanics high profits by our system of patent- 
ights. We make munificent grants to secure gen- 
edueation in all the new Slates. But all direct 
encouragement to agriculture has been rigidly 
withheld. 

When Commerce cornea to our doors, gay in 
aire and lavish in its promises, we " hand 
.u;d deliver" at once our gold. When MahufaC- 
tures appears, with a needy and downcast look, 
\\ e tender, at worst, a " compromise. " And then 
fiery little god of war bristles up and makes 
luivoc of all we have left. So that, when Agri- 
culture appears, 

"A creature not too wise or good 
For human nature's daily food'' — 

though taxed to support all her sisters and idle 
brothers, and to espouse their quarrels — we coldly 
1 there is nothing left for her, and even spurn 
admission of heraffinity to the family by omit- 
ting all mention of heron the records of our stat- 
utes. Ceres does not appear among the gods of 
I '! ympus — only appears in a picture on one of our 
Treasury notes ! 

It is our province, as a nation and as individ- 
ds, to do xoell whatever we undertake. The 
■ iiius and skill of our artists and artisans have 
een universally commended. Our naval archi- 
ll cture is a subject of national pride. Our engi- 
irs are doomed to no merely loc^l fame. Our 
agricultural implements are beyond the reach of 
ompetition. Yet, while we may be in advance 
<>f;he civilized world in many of the useful arts, 
• is a humiliating fact that we are far in the rear 
of the best husbandry in Europe; and, notwith- 
■ riding here and there an elevated spot, our tend- 
ency is still downward. Does not our general sys- 
of agriculture foreshadow ultimate decay ? If 
io, is it beyond our constitutional power and duty 
to provide an incidental remedy? 
The prosperity and happiness of a large and 
ulous nation depend: 



1. i i vision of the land into small par- 
cels. 

2. Upon the education of the proprietors of the 

• 

Our agriculturist?, ai 1 of seek- 

ing a higher cultivation, are ex tend ini: their bound- 
aries; and their education, on the contrary, is lim- 
ited to the metes and bounds of their forefathi 

If it be true that the common mode of cultiva- 
ting the soil in all parts of our country is so de- 
fective as to make the soil poorer year by y 
it ia a most deplorable fact, and a fact of natii 
concern. If we are steadily impairing the natural 
productiveness of the soil, it is a nation;-,' v.nate, 
compensated only by private robbery. What are 
the facts? 

In New England, the pasture-fed stock is not 
on the increase, and sheep-husbandry is gradually 
growing of less importance, excepting perhaps in 
Vermont and New Hampshire. The wheat crop, 
once abundant, is now inconsiderable. The 
lowing table will exhibit something of the depre- 
ciation of the crops in ten years: 

Wheat— bushels. P rtrtfoes — hahels. 

1650. 
Connecticut.... B7..003 U;t»D 3,1 
Massachusetts.. 137,923 31,211 5,3 
Rhode Island... 49 91 1.97 J 

New Hkmpahii ' 185,658 6,208,500 4.30 

Maine 848,166 295,359 10,392,280 3,43 

Vermont 495,81 I 535,955 8 19,751 4,951,014 



2,014,111 1.090.132 : 19,418,1^1 



In many of the southern States the decreasing 
production ia equally marked 

Wht ' in 3810. In ' 

Tennessee 1,61 

Kentucky 4,803,152 2,14 

1,0E 

Alabamti 885 294,044 



12,012,723 






These facts, after all proper allowances for errors 
and a short crop, establish, conclusively, that in 
all parts of our country important elements in the 
soil have been exhausted; and its fertility, in spite 
of all improvements, is steadily sinking. The 
number of acres, of land in use in the Sta' 
New York, in le25 was 7,160,967; in 13j5, the 
number had increased to 26,753,182 acres; but the 
number of sheep had decreased so that, there \ 
nearly three hundred thousand less than there were 
thirty years ago; and within a period of five years 
the decrease has been nearly fifty per cent., v. 
the decrease in the number of horses, cows, and 
swine, : : abote fifteen percent. In 1845 the prod- 



uct of wheat was 13,391,770 bushels. It has stead- 1 
ily declined since, until the prod uct of the past year 
did not exceed (>, 000,000 bushels. The average l 
yield of corn per acre in 1S44 was 24.75 bushels; 
but in 1854 it was only 21.02 bushels. 

The planting lands of southern States have also I to thirty bushels per acre, it has sunk to seven 
greatly deteriorated, and some new fertilizer, be- i Virginia. The opinion of the " English farmer 



Since these words were written, little has beer 
done to elevate the character of Virginia farm- 
ing, and Mount Vernon ii self, losing the eye of its 
master, has lapsed into the general degeneracy. 
While the yield of wheat has increased in England 



yond rotation of crops, is anxiously sought. The 
average crop of wheat in Virginia, Tennessee, and 
North Carolina for 1850, was only seven bushels ' 



may be imagined. 

In an address of the late Hon. A. Stevenson, in 
1850, to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle. 



peracre. In Alabama and Georgia but five bushels : in Virginia, he said 
per acre. And even the largest of any State in ; a u can nari!ly be necess;lry t0 atton)pt t0 impregg (]pii . 
the Union, that of Massachusetts, was but sixteen \\ you the depressed and wretched condition of thefarmint 
bushels per acre; and this, with the leanest soil, !' Interesfe t&toagndut Hie State at large, with the exception 
proves her agricultural science far in advance of of S°"»e few portions of it. which constitute honorable and 

<s. » -txn ■] -i r praiseworthy exceptions." 

net* Bister States. While the crop of cotton m I 

new lands of Texas and Arkansas was seven hun- Even in Ohio the wheat crop is all 
dred to seven hundred and fifty pounds per acre, remunerative than formerly, and fields long cul- 
iiundred and twenty pounds per I tivated are given up to pasturage. In Indiana, 
in the older cultivated fields of South Caro- I Kentucky and Illinois, where so large an am 

of grain is sold and carried off, instead of being 
In a southern journal I find the following state- &" out to stock, they are selling their lands by tin- 
bushel in the shape of wheat and corn, and that 
for a price utterly ruinous. Commerce, found- 
ed upon such agricultural economy as this, must 
come to an end, although the folly will con.:; 
• to be avenged on posterity even to the third and 
fourth generation. 

In the agricultural survey of Mississippi, re- 
cently published, Mr. Harper, speaking of the 
system pursued in that State, says: 



ment: 

ci An Alabama planter says that cotton has destroyed 
more than earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Witness tile 
red hills of Georgia and South Carolina, vvliicji have pro- 
duced cotton till the last dying gasp of the soil forbade any 
(nither attempt at cultivation ; and the land, turned out to 
nature, reminds the traveler, as he views the dilapidated 
condition of the country, of the ruins of ancient Gre 

In Virginia, the crop of tobacco in 1350, was 
less than that of 1840, by i :n million 



•This agriculture has hitherto been a very exhausting 
pounds. No crop has proved more destructive ( one. Mississippi isanewStacej it dates its existence only 
to the fertility of the soil than the tobacco crop, || from the year 1818-; and notwithstanding all its fertility, a 

part of the land is already exhausted; the State is foil 
of old deserted fields." 



and this staple commodity, unless a cheap and 
effective remedy can be found, must be either ban- 
ished or it will banish the cultivators. In this 
State, where tobacco, corn, and wheat have been 
continued for a century, many districts arc no 
longer cultivated. Liebig says, " that from every 
of this land, there were removed in the space 



A recent address issued by the agricultural con- 
vention in South Carolina, declares: 

" Our stocks of ho^'s, horses, mules, and cattle are dimin- 
ishing in size and decreasing in number, and our purses are 

being strained for their last cent to supplj their places from 



of one hundred years, twelve hundred pounds of ten! States." 



alkalies, in leaves, grain an(l straw." In a letter 
of General Washington, dated August G, 1786, 
to a friend (Arthur Young) in England, he 

W ri te s : 

" The system of agriculture, ifthe epithet system can be 
applied to it, which is in use hi this part of the United States, 
'- is unproductive to the p as it is ruinous to the 

lolders. Yet iti adhered to." 

Writing to the same person at a subsequent 
date, (December 5, 1791,) he says: 

'■ The English farmer must entertain a contemptible opin- 



In the late message of the Governor of Georgia, 
he eloquently diseants upon the ''educational 
wants" of his State, and , among many other facts, 
he notices "the exhaustion of the soil under a 
system of agriculture that glories in excluding 
the application eJf scientific principles." 

My time will not permit a greater accumulation 
of evidence oh this point, although I have a cloud 
of witnesses in reserve, nor is pointing out tl 

dness of the land an agreeable duty. Tin- 
leading fact, however, of a wide-spread detei 
in of our husbandry, or a horrid idea of our land, when he l| rat ' on °f the soil, stands out too boldly to ! e 
informed that not more than eight orten bushels of || n;ed. The great, irreversible law of Arm.' 
■ '-'•"' tnt and incn 



6 



diminution of agricultural products, without any 
advance in prices. It follows, just in proportion, 
that capital is disappearing, and thatlaborreceives 
a diminishing reward. Our country is growing 
debilitated, and we propagate the consumptive 
disease with all the energy of private enterprise 
and public patronage. 

There is little doubt but that three fourths of 
the arable land of our whole country is more or 
less subjected to this process of exhaustion. It 
has been estimated by Dr. Lee, of Georgia, that 
the annual income of the soil of not less than one 
hundred millions of acres of land in the United 
States is diminishing at the rate of ten cents an 
acre. This would amount to §10,000,000, and in- 
volve the loss of a capital of $>1G6,6GG,G66 annu- 
ally.' A sum greater than all our national and 
State taxation ! 

Men waste hundreds of acres of land on the the- 
ory that it is inexhaustible, whose entire wealth 
might not purchase the raw materials — the mag- 
nesia, lime, soda, potash, phosphorus, sulphur, 
carbon, nitrogen, &c. — necessary to make a single 
acre possessing primitive fertility. Thus the accu- 
mulated store of ages passes away in a single gen- 
eration. 

And this waste of soil is not the only thing 
wasted. For want of the knowledge and skill 
which the institutions aimed at can alone impart, 
Colonel Wilder, a gentleman of well-earned fame, 
estimates the annual loss of the single State of 
Massachusetts, in the one product of her cereal 
grains, at §2,000,000. Another gentleman, in the 
same State, of great experience in the line of 
stock, dairy, &c, reports the loss from the same 
ignorance and unskillfulness in these interests, at 
$15,000,000 for that State alone. The loss of 
New York, upon her four hundred and forty- 
seven thousand and fourteen horses, (and Ohio, 
by the census of 1850, had more,) through the 
universal incompetency in the veterinary art, has 
been reckoned at not less than two million dol- 
lars. The horse, that " wonder of nature," so 
universally adored by man, for the slightest ail- 
ment, is handed over to the butchers of quackery, 
whose practice is more fatal than that ascribed 
even to Dr. Hornbook: 

" Folk maun do something for their bread, 
An' sue maun Death." 

We are indebted to Europe for our civilized in- 
habitants, and for nearly all of our domesticani- 
mals, whatever the testimony of the rocks may 
be as to the preexistence of the latter. The soil 
we have acquired by the displacement of the red 
man. The only thing we constantly dwell upon 
with complacency is, that we surpass the stock 



from which we sprang, and that we present our 
land bettor than we found it. But this is not beau- 
tiful unless true! 

We 'bring forth new States by the litter, and 
when we want more, like our Norman ancestors, 
we commit " grand larceny," and annex them. 
This progress seems wonderful, but with it ap- 
pears the bitter fact that these new States in half 
a century — a brief time in the history of States — 
become depleted and stationary. This early ma- 
turity is followed by sudden barrenness. 

Concerted effort is necessary to educate and ele- 
vate whole nations. That effort is being made 
abroad with governmental aid in the lead. Here, 
in the "model Republic," where a free repub- 
lican government is installed to guard the gene- 
ral welfare, no such effort is being made. Gov- 
ernmenthas notyetfollowed the lead of the people, 
even afar off. We do not ask for constant and 
persistent outlay and guidance; but a recogni- 
zance for once, and in the most convenient mode, 
of the propriety of encouraging useful knowledge 
among farmers and mechanics, in order to enlarge 
our productive power, give intelligence to those 
who will esteem it a higher boon than land or 
titles, and relieve ourselves from the thraldom of a 
debt due to holders abroad, for the little agricul- 
tural science we now have, and which is quite 
unsafe to use, by reason of the great differences of 
soil and climate. 

Many foreign States support a population 
vastly larger per square mile than we maintain, 
and hold their annual increase; but, by the sys- 
tem of husbandry generally pursued here, the land 
is held until it is robbed of its virtue, skimmed of 
its cream, and then the owner, selling his wasted 
field to some skinflint neighbor, flies to fresh fields 
with the foul purpose to repeat the same spolia- 
tion; and this annual exodus which prevails over 
all the older States, and even begins upon the first 
settlements of the new States before their remoter 
borders have lost sight of the savage, painfully 
indicates that we have reached the maximum of 
population our land will support in the present 
state of our agricultural economy. Our skill must 
be further developed, or here is our limit. A 
fever-and-aguish progress, warmed by speculative 
excitements, and chilled by panics, may be kept 
up while our unpeopled public domain is sup- 
posed to be inexhaustible, and while those who 
buy, buy to sell, and never otherwise intend " to 
hold or drive." But there is a barrier already 
visible, more impassable than the Rocky Mount- 
ains, the great sand plains stretching North and 
South, commencing near the ninety-eighth degree 
of west longitude, or about the center of Kansas, 



and running to the Rocky Mountains, so barren 
of soil, water, timber, and all vegetation, as to pre- 
clude the possibility of settlement by civilized in- 
habitants. Here the wave must be stayed;but,shall 
we not prove unworthy of our patrimony if we 
run over the whole before we learn how to man- 
age a part ? 

We are dilated with the notion that, as a na- 
tion, we may now claim rank with the oldest, the 
best, and the strongest. Our population is rap- 
idly increasing, and brings annually increased de- 
mands for bread and clothing. If we can barely 
meet this demand while we have fresh soils to 
appropriate, we shall early reach the point of our 
decline and fall. The nation which tills the soil 
so as to leave itworse than they found it, is doomed 
to decay and degradation. Other nations lead us, 
not in the invention and handling of improved im- 
plements, but in nearly all the practical sciences 
which can be brought to aid the management and 
results of agricultural labor. We owe it to our- 
selves not to become a weak competitor in the 
most important field where we are to meet the 
world as rivals. It touches us in tenderest points, 
our national honor as well as our private pockets. 
While we ought to possess the granary of the 
world, it has been but a brief time since bread- 
stuffs rose almost to starvation point, and Indi- 
cated the possibility that we might not forever 
escape the only test, that of famine, to which our 
institutions have not been subjected. Able to be 
independent, in a broader sense than any other 
people, having an area ninety-five times as large 
as England and seventeen times as large as Bel- 
gium, yet over one hundred million of our imports 
of the last fiscal year were products mainly of the 
.soil. 

It was not until Rome, deluded with military 
conquests and luxurious living, had become large- 
ly indebted to her conquered provinces for her 
agricultural products, that the " populous north" 
poured forth that rude horde which obtained the 
mastery and accomplished the downfall of the 
Roman Empire- 
Agriculture undoubtedly demands our first care ; 
because its products, in the aggregate, are not only 
of greater value than those of any other branch 
of industry, but greater than all others together; 
and because it is not merely conducive to the 
health of society, the health of trade and of com- 
merce, but essential to their very existence. Eut, 
while it is the most useful and earliest of arts, so 
sluggish have been its advances that we are yet 
experimenting upon problems which were moot- 
points with farmers two thousand years ago. 
Surely an interest so superior, and of such vital 



consequence, ought not to be left to lingering rou- 
tine, but the aid of science should be invoked to 
accelerate its pace, until it can keep step with that 
of other industrial pursuits of mankind. 

Theagriculturists have been, within afew years, 
aroused to their own wants. Periodicals, from a 
higher point of dignity and influence, have fired 
their zeal. The eager crowds which throng to 
the annual fairs of our agricultural societies, from 
the National down to " all the stars of lesser mag- 
nitude," proclaim the universal hunger there is 
foraprofounder information touching that which 
comes home to their business and bosoms. They 
know there are mysteries dearly concerning them, 
and they demand of learning and of science a so- 
lution. " Deformed, unfinished," experiments — 

" scarce half made up, 

And that so lamely" — 

will not do. Farmers will not be cheated longer 
by unsustained speculations. The test of the field 
must follow and verify that of the laboratory. 
The half-bushel and the balance must prove the 
arithmetic. The result must support the theory. 
They want substance and not a shadow — bread 
and not a stone. They know well there is a vast 
force of agricultural labor hitherto misapplied, 
muscles thatsow where they do not reap, and they 
demand light — demand to have their arms unpin- 
ioned ! What has been an art merely to supply 
physical wants must become a science — though it 
wears 

"hodden gray and a' that" — 

doing the same service, but more abundantly, 
and also doing something to satisfy and elevate 
the manhood of the mass of the people. Let us 
have such colleges as may rightfully claim the 
authority of. teachers to announce facts and fixed 
laws, and to scatter broadcast that knowledge 
which will prove useful in building up a great na- 
tion — great in its resources of wealth and power, 
but greatest of all in the aggregate of its intelli- 
gence and virtue. ». 

The mineral wealth of our country, already dig- 
closed, assumes almost unbounded proportions; 
but destitute of experience as we are, and largely 
dependent upon the skill of those but half-taught 
from other lands, our mines are much less rem*u- 
nerativ.e than they would be under the control of 
Americans, with some fundamental instruction in 
their vocation. 

There is no class of our community of whom 
we may be so justly proud as our mechanics. 
Their genius is patent to all the world. For la- 
bor-saving contrivances, their tact seems univer- 
sal; and when any one of them is detailed to do 
the breathing of any engine, he speedily furnishes 



8 



lungs for the engine to do that sort of work for 
itself. But they snatch their education, such as 
it is, from the crevices between labor and sleep. 
They grope in twilight. Our country relies upon 
them as its right arm to do the handiwork of the 
nation. Let us, then, furnish the means for that 
arm to acquire culture, skill, and efficiency. 

We have schools to teach the art of manslay- 
ing and to make masters of " deep-throated en- 
gines" of war; and shall we not have schools to 
teach men the way to feed 4 clothe, and enlighten 
the great brotherhood of man? It is just on the 
part of statesmen and legislators, just on the part 
of other learned professions, that they should aid 
to elevate the class upon whom they lean for sup- 
port, and upon whom they depend for their audi- 
ence. There is no clashing of interests. It is not 
designed to make every man his own doctor, or 
every man his own lawyer; but to make every 
man understand his own business. A lawyer is 
not the worse for having an intelligent client, nor 
a clergyman the worse for having a prosperous 
parishioner. Our present literary colleges need 
have no more j f agricultural colleges 

than a porcelain manufactory would have of an 
iron foundery. They move in separate spheres, 
without competition, and using no raw mate- 
ria! that will diminish the supply of one or the 
other. 

The farmer and the mechanic require special 
schools and appropriate literature quite as much 
. 9 <\ny one of the so-called learned professions. 
The practical sciences are nowhere else called into 
such repeated and constant requisition. Would 
it be sound policy for one who expected to ex- 
pound Blackstone to limit his reading to a muck 
manual or to agricultural chemistry? If it would 
not, how are we to expect one to solve all the 
ntifici relations of earth, water, air, and vege- 
table and animal life, who has only explored read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic? 

All other professions and pursuits reckon among 
their brightest jewels men who were recruited from 
t he robust ranks of agriculture. It is the untainted 
blood from this source that supplies the waste in 
the pulpit, the bar, the forum, and the camp. No 
other pursuit in life obtains this universal tribute, 
that, whatever may be the present idol of devo- 
tion, all classes and ranks of men hope to i 
that estate first bestowed upon A dam, and become 
proprietors of the soil as their ultimate earthly 
paradise. Washington, Calhoun, Clay,- nd Web- 
ster, are more secure of love and ho mag s as farm- 
ers than even as men of highest public renown; 
and Mount Vernon, Fort Hill, Ash and, and 
Marshfield, the Meccas of Ami ■ the 



truth of the words of Pliny, that " the i 
took delight in being tilled by the hands of men 
crowned with laurels and decorated with triumph- 
ant honors." 

Many of the purest embellishments of literature 
have been drawn from the field of the husband- 
man. Gems, not only of poesy and song, but of 
painting and sculpture, of philosophy and elo- 
quence, thus have their origin. Let agriculture, 
then, make its reprisals, and build up a literature 
at once intelligible and satisfactory forits millions 
of thinkers. 

We need a careful, exact, and systematized re- 
gistration of experiments — such as can be made 
at thoroughly scientific institutions, and such a* 
will not be made elsewhere. These tests and thesi 
tables, so furnished, will give us, when reported 
and collated, as is provided for in this bill, a 
rational induction of principles upon which we 
may expect to establish a proper science; and- the 
more widely gathered are the facts, the soundei 
the science. The discoveries of Columbus-struck 
amateurs will not be trumpeted forth until they 
have received the sanction of a body less sanguine 
than the vendors of a patent. Spurious dogmas 
will be touched lightly with the spear of Ithuriel, 
and no longer squat around the ears of w 
plowmen. 

We need to test the natural capability of soils 
and the power of different fertilizers; the relative 
value of different grasses for flesh, fat, and milk- 
giving purposes; the comparative value of grain, 
roots, and hay, for wintering stock; the vala< 
a bushel of corn, oats, peas, carrots., potatoes, 
or turnips, in pounds of beef, pork, or mutton . 
deep plowing as well as drainage; the vitality and 
deterioration of seeds; breeds of animals; reme- 
dies for the potato disease and for all tribes of in- 
sects destructive to cotton, wheat, and fruit crops. 
These, and many more, are questions of scien- 
tific interest even beyond their economical import- 
ance in the researches of the agriculturist. 

The philosophy of manures, or of giving plants 
their appropriate food, is in its infancy. In Eng- 
land they have, through the process of feeding 
wheat, raised the average yield to doubl 
former amount. Liebig, employed in 1840 by the 
Royal Agricultural Society, was almost the first, 
after Sir Humphrey Davy, to practically apply 
Itural chemistry so as to arrest the atten- 
tion of fanners. It was at his suggestion, only 
seventeen years ago, that guano was brought into 
notice. In 1351, notwithstanding its extravagant 
price, England imported two hundred and forty- 
three thousand and fourteen tons of this coi, 

I fertilizer, proving that the fabled eggs of 



I 



9 



the golden goose have been eclipsed in value by 
the " evacuations of sea-gulls." 

It is plainly an indication that education is tak- 
ing a step in advance when public sentiment be- 
gins to demand that the faculties of young men 
shall be trained with some reference to the voca- 
tion to which they are to be devoted through life. 
It is clear that intellectual discipline can be ob- 
tained under more than one mode, and, if the pri- 
mary education sought for this purpose can be 
afterwards applied to practical use in the destined 
occupation, it is apoint clearly gained. Law, the- 
ology, and medicine, have been specialities from 
the time whereof the memory of man runneth not 
to the contrary. Special schools for art, trade, ar.d 
commerce, though of later growth, have been long 
established in many places throughout Europe, 
and in our own American cities. In some places 
these institutions, intended to be practical rather 
than speculative, go by the not inapt name of Real 
Schools. Agricultural collegesand schools in many 
portions of Europe are a marked feature of the 
age. In our own country the general want of such 
places of instruction has been so manifest that 
States, societies, and individuals, have attempted 
to supply it, though necessarily in stinted meas- 
ure. The " plentiful lack" of funds has retarded 
their maturity and usefulness; but there are some 
examples, like that of Michigan, liberally sup- 
ported by ihe State, in the full tide of successful 
experiment. Adequate means to start on a scale 
commensurate with the gres t objects in view 
seems an indispensable prerequisite. States have 
been unable to impose at once the increased tax- 
ation that wojild be required, and the liberality of 
private individuals has been unequal to the task. 
But if this bill shall pass, the institutions of the 
character required by the people, and by our na- 
tive land, would spring into life, and not languish 
from poverty, doubf, or neglect. They would 
prove (if they should not literally, like the schools 
of an i, hold the children of the State) 

the pe urseries of patriotism, thrift and 

liberal information — places " where men do not 
decay." They would turn out men for solid use, 
and not drones. It may be assumed that tuition 
would be frc •, and that the exercise of holding the 
plowand swinging the scythe — every whit as no- 
ble, artistic, and graceful, as the postures of the 
gymnastic or military drill — would go far towards 
defraying all other expenses of the students. Mus- 
cles hardened by such training would not become 
soft in summer or torpid in winter; and the grad- 
uates would know how to sustain American in- 
stitutions with American vigor. 

It is desirable that the agricultural hive, in all 



its industrial ramifications, should furnish such 
generous rewards, such noble incentives, as to re- 
claim the truants who have fled to and clog and 
embarrass other pursuits and professions with 
untrained adventurers. The New York Mercan- 
tile Agency states the number of stores in the 
United States at 204,061, which would be about 
one store to everyone hundred and twenty-thn n 
inhabitants. This shows 

"Trade wtel is the sword ; and Agriculture leaves 
Her half-turned furrows; other harvests fire 
An avarice of renown." 

I suppose that it might be a fair estimate to say 
that eighty out of every hundred of these traders 
become insolvent every ten years. But had they 
sted their capital and labor in agriculture, it 
ifely assumed that not twenty out of 
every hundred would have failed to secure a c 
icy. 
Adam Smith, after having noticed " the precari- 
ous and uncertain possession" of capital engaged 
in commerce and manufactures, says: 

'•' That which arises from the more solid improvements of 
durable, and cannot be destroyed 

but by those more violent convulsions occasioned by the 
of hostile and barbarous nations continued for 
a century or two together." 

Mr. Speaker, when a money pressure over- 
takes the country, like that through which we 
•, in searching for its cause no 
one thinks of charging it upon agriculturists. 
They are not only industrious, but frugal. Thrift 
is their cardinal virtue. They do not produce, 
vend, nor consume luxuries. They hasten slowly, 
and go untouched of all epidemical speculation?. 
But when the crisis comes — when commerce, man- 
ufactures, banks, and even Government itself, 
quail beneath the storm — all eyes turn to the hardy 
tillers of the ' oil for relief. Tl.ey stand, as they 
always stand, with enough for themselves and 
something to sp^-e. They furnish raw material, 
freight, means of liquidation or of supply; and 
yet, when they would be even more useful, shall 
we pronounce them unworthy, and deny them 
opportunity ? 

It is one of the political axioms of the \v: 
dy quoted, everywhere accredited, that ria- 
i wealth is greatly increased or diminished 
by the more or loss skill, dexterity, and judg- 
ment, with which labor is generally applied. As 
legislators, we can have no subject before us of 
higher intrinsic importance. 

Manufacturers, when their books disclose a los- 
ing business, change to a different class of goods: 
merchants, in like circi ces, to a diffej 

trade and other markets; but all history sir 



10 



the tenacity with which habits acquired in the cul- 
tivation of land cling to a people from generation 
to generation. In all ages farmers have been sta- 
ble, conservative, and reverent to antiquity. The 
same plow as described three thousand years ago 
at 

" Athens, tlie eye of Greece, mother of arts 
And eloquence," 

is still in use among the modern Greeks. The 
habitant of Canada as much believes to-day in the 
propriety of placing the yoke on to the horns of 
the ox, in order to secure the entire strength of the 
animal, as he did in the days when he owed allegi- 
ance to the Grand Monarch. The old Roman plow, 
sometimes drawn, in the days of Nero, " by a, 
wretched ass on the one side, and an old woman 
on the other," still retains its place in Italy, and 
in parts of Spain and the south of France. If we 
turn to the descendants of the Puritans, we shall 
find some of these yet kill their pork and plant 
their corn in " the old of the moon." In all ages, 
and in all countries, the habits, as well as the vir- 
tues of agriculturists, remain fixed. 

Agricultural men dwell apart. Their business 
keeps them at home, and they cannot combine to 
secure general improvements, or to make their 
complaints heard. They suffer in silence — the 
rolling years only noted by " seed time and har- 
vest." 

All over the highest civilized parts of Europe 
we find the different Governments alive to the 
wants of agriculture. They have established min- 
isters of instruction, model farms, experimental 
farms, botanical gardens, colleges, and a large 
number of secondary schools, with no other pur- 
pose — and they need no higher or nobler — than 
the improvement of the industrial resources — the 
farms and the farmers — of the respective coun- 
tries. All these are chiefly supported by large 
annual expenditures of the different Governments, 
except so far as any may be self-supporting in- 
stitutions. The effect is in the largest degree fa- 
vorable to the people and to increased production. 
But the teachings of European professors are of 
little consequence to Americans, even if they could 
be comprehended and instantaneously adopted, 
as they are rarely suited to our circumstances. 
Can we not have something that we may claim 
as our own ? Young Americans should have some 
chance to study agriculture as a profession, and 
be attracted to it as to a learned, liberal, and in- 
tellectual pursuit. Is it true, as our detractors 
assert, that science can flourish only under the 
patronage of royalty? 

This system of education is known to be more 
complete in Prussia than in any other nation of 



Europe. It may be said that all the children at- 
tend school until they are thirteen years old; and 
agricultural colleges, and schools for the mechanic 
arts and higher trades, are liberally sustained, 
and with a much larger staff of professors than 
is common in the United States. This nation is 
making rapid progress in wealth and intelligence. 

In Saxony they have a number of experiment 
stations, or experimental farms, with laboratories 
attached, and five or more schools exclusively for 
agriculture. There is no country in the world 
where agriculture and all branches of industry 
are pursued with more enterprise and success 
than in the little monarchy of Saxony; and there, 
of 315,185 children between the ages of six and 
fourteen years, 311,454 were, inl851, in actual 
attendance at school. 

Belgium has its agricultural schools also, and 
great opportunies for general education are given, 
especially in the larger towns. Here farming is 
conducted most on a scientific basis; and Bel- 
gium, supporting a population of three hundred 
and thirty-six to the square mile, in a climate in- 
ferior to that of Kentucky or Virginia, averaging 
only twenty-six and twenty-three to the square 
mile, is the first in rank as an agricultural State 
in Europe. Its once noted battle-fields are now 
equally noted as model farms. This preeminence 
is chiefly the result of scientific attention to ma- 
nures. 

France, from the time of Napoleon, has done 
much for agriculture. Beet-sugar, the mulberry, 
the grape, as well as Merino sheep and the Thi- 
bet goat, have received imperial attention. No 
expense in France is shirked in the cause of agri- 
cultural science. Her botanical gardens, chemical 
laboratories, physiological museums, and schools 
for instructions in the veterinary art, surpass all 
others in existence, and with her five agricultural 
colleges, and almost one hundred inferior agri- 
cultural schools are performing herculean labors 
for the elevation of the farming population of the 
empire. The Revolution and the successive wars 
loaded France with an immense debt; but this 
was rapidly extinguished from the never-failing 
resources of her soil. The abrogation of the game 
laws and many other feudal enactments has aided 
her progress, but the breaking up and division of 
every estate at the death of the owner; doubtless 
retards much of permanent improvement. But for 
this abuse of a true principle, and the illiterate 
condition of her people, France would have been 
the pioneeer of rural economy. 

As it is, we look more to England and Scot- 
land, and to Ireland to some extent, for princi- 
ples and facts for our instruction. Here we find 



' 



11 



agriculture developed in all its noblest attitudes 
Science, wealth, taste, mind, and rank, combine J 
to increase its profit, beauty, and honor. The 
large fortunes of individuals enable Science to 
delve constantly in its behalf; but the Government, 
far from thinking that enough, annually contrib- 
utes liberally to the same object, especially in 
Ireland. Colleges and schools of agriculture are 
numerous in Great Britain, but their usefulness 
is greatly restricted on account of the limited 
attendance arising from the jealousies of caste. 
Agricultural improvement is imposed on such a 
people from necessity. The heavy taxation, the 
enormous consumption of luxuries, and density 
of population, could not be otherwise supported. 
Science, like the rod of Aaron, has touched the 
soil, and behold ! the crops are doubled. Nothing 
but this in Ireland could have checked the disper- 
sion of a nation — a nation, too, that in ten years 
preceding 1846, exported more grain than all of 
the United States. Notwithstanding the magnifi- 
cent proportions of her commerce, freckling all 
seas with its flag, and notwithstanding her all- 
embracing manufactures, with their countless fires 
blazing day and night, England, were her agri- 
culture to retrograde, or the land fail "to yield her 
increase," would be numbered with things that 
were, and the earth no more rock at the sound of 
Trafalgar or Waterloo. 

The Government of Russia,- the growing giant 
of Europe, has recently taken a conspicuous lead 
in the education of its people, and the cause of 
agriculture there holds a deserved prominence. 
Of colleges, schools, and special schools devoted 
to agriculture, Russia maintains a greater number 
than any other nation, France only excepted. No 
nation has arisen in the political firmament, with 
a steadier splendor than the great northern bear, 
which, instead of pawing, like Milton's lion, "his 
hinder-parts to get free "from the mud of the Nile, 
is struggling to get free from the Polar ice of ig- 
norance. The back-bone of Russia, in her recent 
contest, lay in her agricultural forces, and against 
these but half-tutored resources of men and wealth, 
half the strength of Europe could only wage a 
drawn battle. Here we find a despotism, from 
motives merely of governmental policy, elevating 
labor, placing it within the power of her agricul- 
turists and artisans to become educated and skill- 
ful, while our people with the Government in their 
own hands, parley on the brink, and do nothing 
for their own benefit. 

Spain is weak in all her industry, because, while 
an uneducated Spanish gentleman, it is said, can- 
not be found, so neither can a peasant be found 
who can read or write. 



Italy, anciently far in advance of all her cotem- 
poraries, in theory and practice, is now behind 
all other States in her farming and industrial pur- 
suits, and here we find but one person in fifty pro- 
vided with any instruction whatever. 

I might contrast Bohemia with Saxony, and 
even Ireland with England, or the different can- 
tons of Switzerland with each other, to show the 
difference between ignorant and educated culture 
of the soil, but I have not space. 

Thus, we behold the suffrages of all the wiser 
civilized nations in favor of the measure contem- 
plated by the bill under consideration; examples 
as much to be imitated as those of an opposite 
character are to be shunned. If other nations ad- 
vance, though we but pause, we are distanced. 
The voice of our country, if it could find utter- 
ance, is believed to be overwhelmingly in favor 
of the establishment of these institutions on our 
own soil. They are as much needed and will be 
as gratefully accepted in one direction of our coun- 
try as another. More than four fifths of our pop- 
ulation are engaged in agricultural and mechanical 
employments. This vast number out of thirty 
millions of people now, to be increased to fifty 
millions in less than twenty years, will forever 
furnish an inexhaustible supply of pupils who 
will not forsake their calling. Is it not of grave 
importance to give this vast force an intelligent 
direction ? 

In 1850 there were, between the ages of five 
and fifteen, 5,106,257 inhabitants of our country. 
There were engaged in the professions of law, 
medicine, and theology, 94,575 citizens, and in all 
the colleges of the United States there were 27,159 
pupils only. If these pupils required two hun- 
dred and thirty-nine colleges for their instruction, 
how many ought we to have for the sons of the 
millions engaged in agriculture? Why, sir, the 
number which it may be hoped will be provided 
for under the auspices of this bill will hardly do 
more for some years than to supply teachers that 
will be required in secondary schools. 

At the close of the Revolution there was much 
difficulty about these lands. The States within 
whose boundaries the ungranted crown lands 
were situated felt disposed to claim them, unjustly 
as the other States thought, as State property. 
But finally all yielded to the Union, using in their 
conveyance words of like import — that the lands 
should be considered a common fund for the use and 
benefit of all. Since then the revolutionary debt 
has been extinguished; gratitude for military ser- 
vices has been acknowledged to the extent of 
forty-four million one hundred and nine thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-nine acres; new States 



12 



have been properly treated with statesmanlike 
liberality; riowby this bill th s, by whose 

blood and tn asure the public domain was so 

jelyacquiredjWiHbeallowedsbrnedirecl 
but not greater than that of oth :rs, in the distri- 
bution. What clause in the constitution ihter- 
pos is any barrii r to this ? 

It cannot 'i. I that this is one of a class 

1 

(of cases; for here is one where four fifths of all 
the people are directly, and all the rest indirectly, 
interested. No other can come up representing 
more than a fractional part of the remaining fifth. 
Our Government is also directly interested, as 
the holder and dealer in large tracts of land. If it 
be for the interest of small holders of land, it must 
be for the interest of a. large holder. There is not 
even an exclusion of those who do not cultivate 
their land. If the measure shall in any degree in- 
crease the future profits of cultivators, tile value 
of all land, wherever it may be, whether held in 
small or large quantities, will be augmented. The 
cotton-gin has hardly done more to raise the price 
of estates in the South, than would now the dis- 
covery of a remedy for the boll-worm, and other 
destructive insects, which gore and gorge the 
cotton-plant; nor have the reaping machines been 
of more advantage to western wheat fields, than 
would be a cure for the wheat midge. These in- 

rs may not be overcome; may not be within 
the reach of human enginery, one sixth part of the 
cotton and wheat crop may still be lost; but some 
resulting improvements may safely be predicated 
upon the labors of thirty-two or more institutions 
actively engaged in scientific agriculture. There 
can be no doubt that the benefits to be derived, 
will prove an ample consideration for the lands 
disposed of. One of the most adequate consider- 
ations ever received for any estate by parent, is 
called, in legal parlance, " love and affection;" 
and that also will not be wanting here. 

These considerations are tendered by those 
Slates, to whose toils and expenditures the mar- 
ketable value of our public domain is so largely 
indebted. Blot out the canals and railroads of 
Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, costing o vet- 
two hundred million dollars, and the buffalo and 
the fur-trader on the western prairies might strive 
far the mastery', but civilization would postp 
In r triumphs over the savage to a remoter a'„ r e. 
Our " western empire" might be taXed the whole 
cost of the New York and Erie canal, and then 
be the gainer; and vet the bill I am advoC 
will no;, appropriate, among all the States, one 
fifth part of its original cost, and not one h 

mount of the yet unpaid canal debt of New .. 
York . 



The third section of article four of the Constitu- 
tion declares: 

'• The Congress shall Kayc power to dispose of- and in rfta 
all net itory or 

iperty belonging to the Uni ed States." 

Here is the whole of it; and there is no restric- 
tion save that in the deeds of cession. Our public 
lands are no longer pledged for a national d 
and, if held for the common benefit of all, how 
can it be wrong to give all their rightful arid exact 
proportion to the limited extent now proposed ; 
Who will be wronged ? What better thing shall 
we do with them ? Wl ItsCordant opinions 

there may have recently existed touching the true 
interpretation of this clause, as to persons, no out/ 
will pretend that ft does not give complete control 
over the land (the property) belonging to the 
United States; and the measure I am considering 
is a literal compliance with the powers conferred 
in that it proceeds " to dispose of and make ail 
needful rules and regulations" respecting so much 
as is embraced in the bill. 

Grants of lands during and since 1830 have been 
made to ten States and one Territory, to aid in th# 
construction of more than fifty railroads, of an 
extent of about nine thousand miles, amounting 
to 25,403,993 acres. These grants were made on 
the argument of " prudent proprietorship," and 
alternate sections were given away to double the 
price of the remainder. Whether the policy Will 
result in any loss to the Government or 
States were treated with a liberality they will 
never forget. As a prudent proprietor, may we 
not do that which will not only tend to raise the 
value of all land , whether own. d by individuals or 
by Government, but make agricultural labor more 
profitable and mere dei l pursuitin Hffe? 

Up to the 30th of June. 1857, we had ungrudg- 
ingly donated to different States and Territories 
sixty-seven million se\ i red and thirty-six 

thousand five hundred and seventy-two acres of 
land for schools and universities. No one shall 
be twitted forsuch acts by me; but, if the purpose 
be a noble: one as applied to a Territory spar 
populated, it is certainly no 
thickly peopled. If such donations are cdnstitu- 

Ul COnStifn- 

ti mal when proposed I Dominion, th . 

Empire, Keystone, and Little Rhody? Is there 
a more urgent demand for such aid in behalf of 
ople ofaTerritory free ofdebt, whose frame 
of government is supported by the nation, than 
in behalf of States bearing all the debt and bur- 
dens of the national Government, and bending 
under $2 15,211,259 of present Stale indebtedn. 
Surely the endowment of agricultural colh 



IS 



ought not to it peijd upon the resources of States 

idyso oppressively laden, nor upon the cc 
by-chance charities of individuals) but upon the 

■! administration of the Government v. 
biia been expressly constituted the trustee oi 

ile store for the common benefit of all the 
kites. 

The executive and legislative precedents which 
can be arrayed to sustain th embodied 

in this measure are of great weight and authority. 
Commencing with th ith the Consti- 

tution, and continuing to a recent date, we have 
-•pinions and acts of men that few at the pres- 
ould not think it robbery to claim for 
any Fav >rite an equality. 

Washington brought the subject of agriculture 

ire Congress in his first message. He thought it 

bject within the constitutional jurisdiction, and 

his experien.ee increased that conviction; for in 

his la3i message, December 7, 1796, he recurs to 

it with elaborate argument. He says: 

•'It will r, 'erenee.either to in- 

dividual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary Ira- 
mce. in prpportion as nations advance in population 
ftnd < itl er circti task 1 

more ■' ; ,,;1 niore 

i-nl ;u 

promoting h grow op, supported Uy the public purse; and 
town ! it be dedicated with greater propriety?" 

Thus we have the very germ of the whole pro* 
ject. "The cultivation of the soil," institutions 
■■ supported by the public purse," he exclaims, 
" to what object can it be dedicated with greater 
propriety?" It cannot be doubted that donations 
of land for agricultural colleges would have re- 
ceived the approval of Washington. He pro- 
ceeds: 

••■ I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Con- 
lablislu'Bg a national imi 
and also a military academy. The desirableness of both 
these institutions i ! with 

new view I have I tken of the subject, that f cannot omit 
the opportunity ot*. onco for all, recalling your attention to 

• i The assembly to which 1 address myself is too enlight- 
ened not to be fully sensible how much a flourishing state 
ofthe arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity 
and reputation. True it is, that our country, much to its 
honor, contains many seminaries of learning, highly re- 
spectable and useful; but the funds upon which they rest 
are too narrow to command the ablest, pi (lessors in the dif- 
ferent departments of liberal knowledge for the institution 
contemplated, though they would be excellent auxiliaries." 

This will be enough to satisfy all as to the opin- 
ions of Washington. Let us now see what were 
the opinions of Jefferson. In his sixth messagf 
h- thus speak?: 



branches oui of the hands of private enterprise, tt 
ages so much better "all the concerns to which ti [iial J 
but a public institution can alone supply those sciences 
which, though rarely called for, are yet nee-s-ary to com- 
plete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the Ira- 
oun try, and some of them to its preserva* 

The message goes on to show that if public 

moneys were to be used for roads and canals, an 

I amendment of the Constitution would be neces- 

■ sary, but that land mightbe used for that purpose 
withoutan amendment. He then proceeds to urge 
his favorite university thus! 

"The present consideration of a national establishment 
for education, particularly, is rendered proper by this cir- 
cumstance also, that if Congre is, approving the proposition: 
shall yet think it more eligible to found it on a donation ot 
lands, they have it now in their power to endow it with those 
which will he amongst the earliest lo produce the necc 
income. This foundation would have the advantage ol I 
independent in war. which may suspend other improve- 
ments, by requiring for its own purposes the resources des- 
•hem." 

I submit that here the whole question of Con- 
stitutional power is covered, as well as a power-* 
ful argument suggested, by Jefferson. 

For want of time, all reference to Madison • 
Monroe, and Adams, must be omitted. Jackson 
was the steadfast friend of agriculture, and the 
first, in 1837, to call into the PatentOface a prac- 
tical farmer (Mr. Ellsworth) to Collect statistic::, 
As Senator, General Jackson voted a township of 
land to La Fayette. He approved, June 30, 1834, 
of giving thirty-six sections of land to the-Po 
exiles expelled from Europe by Austria. He ap* 
proved, April 2, 1830, of a bill giving land to a 
! for the construction of the Miami canal. 
! January 13, 1831, he approved of a bill granting 

■ a single section for schools, in Lawrence, Mis- 
ppi. March 2, 1833, an act was passed chang- 
ing the Illinois canal grant to a railroad grant. 
with obligations attached. This was approved by 
General Jackson. That part of the Cumberland 
road in Ohio was surrendered in 1831, and that in 
Virginia in 1833, to the respective States, with A 
compact that they should keep the same in repair 
and collect the tolls — approved by General Jack- 
son, and the act decided since to be constitutional 
by the Supreme Court of the United States. Gen- 
eral Jackson rejected the land bill of 1833, mainly 
for the reason that it first gave to the States 
wherever the lands might lie, twelve anda half per 
cent, before there was to be any division among 
the other States. This he denounced as injustice 
and in It is enough to say that no such 

'--■! against the division pro- 

Education is here placed among tl.c articles of public P osed now " There can be no 1 uestion that Gen " 
l that it would be proposed to take its ordinary I] eral Jackson and the men who cooperated with 



14 



him would have approved of grants of land to 
all the States for the benefit of agricultural col- 
leges. 

The bill donating lands to the State of Connec- 
ticut, for a seminary of learning for the deaf and 
dumb, passed the Senate in 1819, without even a 
cull of the yeas and nays. The bill approved Jan- 
uary 23, 1827, donating lands to Kentucky for a 
seminary of learning for the deaf and dumb, passed 
the Senate by a vote of 27 to 6; and we find such 
men as King of Alabama, Johnson of Kentucky, 
Benton of Missouri, Eaton and White of Tennes- 
see, and Woodbury of New Hampshire, voting 
for the measure. In the House, the bill passed by 
120 to 43; and among the yeas will be found the 
names of James Buchanan, James K. Polk, Cam- 
breleng, Livingston, McDuffie, and Wickliffe. 
Surely these are no mean authorities on constitu- 
tional questions, to be added to the names of Craw- 
ford, Monroe, Calhoun , Webster, Clay , and Clay- 
ton. In 1838, a township of land in Florida was 
granted to Dr. Henry Perrine, to " promote the 
cultivation of tropical plants." In 1841, there was 
donated to each of the new States five hundred 
thousand acres of land. The present law, now on 
our Statutes at Large, is, that when duties are 
brought down below twenty per cent., the pro- 
ceeds of the public lands are to be distributed to 
the States. Congress donated to the State of Ten- 
nessee, August 6, 1846, of unproductive lands 
lying in that State, one million three hundred 
thousand acres, on the condition that the State 
should endow and establish a college, at an ex- 
pense of not less than forty thousand dollars. Over 
fifty million acres of swamp lands have been given 
to different States. President Taylor, in his mes- 
sage of 1849, says: 

" No direct aid has been given by tbe General Govern- 
ment to the improvement of agriculture, except by the ex- 
penditure of small sums for the collection and publication 
of agricultural statistics, and for some chemical analyses, 
which have been, thus far, paid for out of the patent fund. 
This aid, in my opinion, is wholly inadequate. " 

President Fillmore, in his message of 1850, 
says: 

"Agriculture may justly be regarded as the great interest 
of our people. Four fifths of our active population are em 
ployed in the cultivation of the soil ; and the expansion of 
our settlements over new territory is daily adding to the 
number engaged in that vocation. Justice and sound policy, 
therefore, alike require that the Government should use all 
the means authorized by the Constitution to promote the 
interests and welfare of that important class of our fejlow- 
citizens. And yet it is a singular fact that, whilst the man- 
ufacturing and commercial interests have engaged the at- 
tention of Congress during a large portion of every session, 
and our statutes abound in provisions for their protection 
ai.d encouragement, little has yet been done directly for the 



advancement of asrictilture. ft Is time that this reproach 
to our legislation should be removed ; and I sincerely hope 
that the present Congress will not close their labors without 
adopting efficient means to supply the omissions of those 
who have preceded them." 

The constitutionality of a measure does not 

depend upon the amount, but upon the principle 

! involved. The citations made show that there is 

! a great preponderance, almost uninterrupted from 

, the foundation of the Government, of executive, 

legislative, and judicial authority, to prove that 

the power of Congress to dispose of the public lands 

at its discretion is plain, absolute, and unlimited. 

The derivative title to a moiety of the lands im- 

posesa condition upon the disposal of that portion 

so derived — a condition itself persuasively urging 

our present object — which is " for the use and 

common benefit of all the States." 

While agriculture has been a neglected field of 
legislation, it does not now call for the exercise 
of novel constitutional power. Congress has long 
asserted the riyht to dispose of the public kinds 
to establish school funds and universities, and no 
one now questions the soundness of such a policy. 
This measure is but an extension of the same 
principle over a wider field — wider in its applica- 
tions, but not wider in its amount, for the num- 
ber of acres now proposed for all the States is 
scarcely larger than have been donated to indi- 
vidual States. It is general and not local in its 
reach. If we have the power to make special 
grants, in particular and individual cases, we cer- 
tainly have the power, and it would be far more 
just and expedient to exercise it, in its general ap- 
plication. Pass this measure and we shall have 
done — 

Something to enable the farmer to raise two 
blades of grass instead of one; 

Something for every owner of land; 

Something for all who desire to own land; 

Something for cheap scientific education; 

Something for every man who loves intelligence 
and not ignorance; 

Something to induce the father's sons and 
daughters to settle and duster around the old 
homesteads; 

Something to remove the last vestige of pauper- 
ism from our land; 

Something for peace, good order, and the bet- 
ter support of Christian churches and common 
schools; i 

Something to enable sterile railroads to pay 
dividends; 

Something to enable the people to bear the 
enormous expenditures of the national Govern- 
ment; 



15 



Something to check the passion of individuals, 
and of the nation, for indefinite territorial expan- 
sion and ultimate decrepitude; 

Something to prevent the dispersion of our pop- 
ulation, and to concentrate it around the best lands 
of our country — places hallowed by church spires, 
and mellowed by all the influences of time — where 
the consumer will be placed at the door of the pro- 
ducer; and thereby 

Something to obtain higher prices for all sorts 
of agricultural productions; and 

Something to increase the loveliness of the 
American landscape. Scientific culture is the sure 
precursor of order and beauty. Our esthetic 
Diedrich Knickerbockers, who have no land, will 
have a fairer opportunity to become great ad- 
mirers of land that belongs to others. 

Many of our wisest statesmen have denounced 
our general land system as a prolific source of 
corruption; but what corruption can flow from 
endowing agricultural colleges? Here is neither 
profligacy nor waste, but a measure of justice and 
beneficence. Without meaning to express my 
opinion for or against the homestead policy, I ask, 
in all candor, what man is there in the whole 
length and breadth of our country, who would 
not prefer, if he could have his choice, such an 
education as might be obtained at one of these 
colleges to a warrant for one hundred and sixty 
acres of land ? 

The persuasive arguments of precedents; the 
example of our worthiest rivals in Europe; the 
rejuvenation of worn-out lands, which bring forth 
taxes only; the petitions of farmers everywhere, 
yearning for "a more excellent way;" philan- 
thropy, supported by our own highest interests 
— all these considerations impel us for once to do 
something for agriculture worthy of its national 
importance. 

By the recent statement of the Land Office, we 
have 1,088,792,498 acres of land to dispose of; and 
when this bill shall have passed, there will then 
remain about one thousand and eighty-three mil- 
lions of acres. We shall still be the largest land- 
holder in the world, while confessedly we are not 
the best farmers. Let it never be said we are 
" the greatest and the meanest of mankind." 

APPENDIX. 

A bill donating public lands to the several States which may 
provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the me- 
chanic arts. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
there be granted to the several States, for the purpose here- 
inafter mentioned, five millions, nine hundred and twenty 
thousand acres of land, to be apportioned to each State a 



quantity equal to twenty thousand acres for each Senator 
and Representative in Congress, to which the States are 
now respectively entitled. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the land aforesaid, 
after being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several 
States, in sections or subdivisions of sections, not less than 
one quarter of a section; and whenever there are public 
lands in a State, worth $1 25 per acre, (the value of said 
lands to be determined by the Governor of said State,) the 
quantity to which said State shall be entitled, shall be se- 
lected from such lands, and the Secretary of the Interior is 
hereby directed to issue to those States in which there are 
no public lands of the Value of $1 25 per acre, land scrip to 
the amount of their distributive shares in acres under the 
provisions of this act, said scrip to be sold by said States, 
and the proceeds thereof applied to the uses and the pur- 
poses prescribed in this act, and for no other use or purpose 
whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to 
which land scrip may thus be issued, be allowed to locate 
the same within the limits of any other State, but their as- 
signees may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the un- 
appropriated lands of the United States, subject to private 
entry. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the expenses 
of management and superintendence of said lands, previous 
to their sales, and all expenses incurred in the management 
and disbursement of the moneys which maybe received 
therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may 
belong out of the treasury of said States, so that the entire 
proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be applied without 
any diminution whatever to the purposes hereinafter men- 
tioned. 

Sec 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys de- 
rived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to 
Which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land 
scrip hereinbefore provided for, shall be invested in stocks 
of the United States, or of theiStates, or some other safe 
stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par 
value of said stocks ; and that the moneys so invested shall 
constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall re- 
main forever undiminished (except so far as may be pro- 
vided in section fifth of this act,) and the interest of which 
shall be inviolably appropriated, by each State which may 
take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, 
support, and maintenance of at least one college where the 
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific 
| or classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are 
related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such man- 
! ner as the Legislatures of the States may respectively pre- 
! scribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical educa- 
i tion of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
professions in life. 

Sec. 5. And be it farther enacted, That the grant of land 
and land scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the fol- 
lowing conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions 
hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several 
States shall be signified by legislative acts : 

First. If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by 
the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, 
shall, by any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, 
it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that 
the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished ; 
and the annual interest shall be regularly applied, without 
diminution, to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section 
of this act, except that a sum, not exceeding ten per centum 
upon the amount received by any State under the provisions 
of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for 



10 



ivisiona of i!.is act shall proi . 

than one college, as deseril 

i 

liall lis bound to pay I 
•reived of any lands previoi 



' u annual *■;• 

ig any improvements and 1 
. With their c : Blieh 

other m opy of which 

: by mail ileo. by each, to all the 

r the provisions of 
this ai ' 
riculti;; at Wi 

ii-.ose Which 
have I ■ double the minimum price, in conge- 

al! I 1 the 

the quantity. 



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